A Possible Future
by elysianoriel
Summary: {ABANDONED} "A broken world and they are the breakers..." So begins the Last Prophecy, uttered by a dying Moonwatcher 100 years after the Wings of Fire series. It foretells the coming of the last dragonets of destiny, five dragonets who will save Pyrrhia one final time. And one thing is certain: nothing will ever be the same again.
1. Guide to the Dragons of Pyrrhia

**A NIGHTWING GUIDE TO THE DRAGONS OF PYRRHIA**

* * *

**SANDWINGS**

**Description:** Pale gold or white scales the color of desert sand; poisonous barbed tail; forked black tongues.

**Abilities:** Can survive a long time without water, poison enemies with the tips of their tails like scorpions, bury themselves for camouflage in the desert sand, breathe fire.

**Queen:** Queen Jackal (Burn)

**Alliances:** The Sand Kingdom is split up into four political parties: Burns, Blisters, Blazes, and Thorns, although most dragons have forgotten what these allegiances really mean.

**Students at Jade Mountain:** Coati, Kowari, Python, Camel, &amp; Sandstorm

* * *

**MUDWINGS**

**Description:** Thick, armored brown scales, sometimes with amber and gold underscales; large, flat heads with nostrils on top of the snout,

**Abilities:** Can breathe fire (if warm enough), hold their breath for up to an hour, blend into large mud puddles; usually very strong.

**Queen:** Queen Auburn

**Alliances:** none

**Students at Jade Mountain:** Damselfly, Muskeg, Toad, Alligator, &amp; Duck

* * *

**SKYWINGS**

**Description:** Red-gold or orange scales; enormous wings.

**Abilities:** Powerful fighters and fliers, can breathe fire.

**Queen:** Queen Russet

**Alliances:** none

**Students at Jade Mountain:** Pyrope, Avocet, Goldeneye, Smoky, &amp; Vermeil

* * *

**SEAWINGS**

**Description:** Blue or green or aquamarine scales; webs between their claws; gills on their necks; glow-in-the-dark stripes on their tails/snouts/underbellies.

**Abilities:** Can breathe underwater, see in the dark, create huge waves with one splash of their powerful tails; excellent swimmers.

**Queen:** Queen Auklet

**Alliances:** none

**Students at Jade Mountain: **Gossamer, Akoya, Yellowlegs, Tide, &amp; Krill

* * *

**ICEWINGS**

**Description:** Silvery scales like the moon or pale blue like ice; ridged claws to grip the ice; forked blue tongues; tails narrow to a whip-thin end.

**Abilities:** Can withstand subzero temperatures and bright light, exhale a deadly frostbreath.

**Queen:** Queen Diamond

**Alliances:** none

**Students at Jade Mountain:** Skua, Shard, Storm, Adelie, &amp; Frostbite

* * *

**RAINWINGS**

**Description:** Scales constantly shift colors, usually bright like birds of paradise; prehensile tails.

**Abilities:** Can camouflage their scales to blend into their surroundings; shoot a deadly venom from their fangs.

**Queen:** Queen Majestic

**Alliances:** Currently at peace, but in wartime they have fought with the NightWings.

**Students at Jade Mountain:** Guava, Sunshine, Spider, Tree Frog, &amp; Mango

* * *

**NIGHTWINGS**

**Description:** Purplish-black scales and scattered silver scales on the underside of their wings, like a night sky full of stars; forked black tongues.

**Abilities:** Can breathe fire, disappear into dark shadows; can read minds and/or foretell the future if born under a full moon.

**Queen:** Queen Invincible &amp; Queen Majestic of the RainWings (see scrolls on the NightWing Exodus)

**Alliances:** Currently at peace, but in wartime they have fought with the RainWings.

**Students at Jade Mountain:** Windwalker, Longtail, Truthspeaker, Dauntless, Secretseer


	2. Allegiances

**ALLEGIANCES**

Three moons, there are a lot of characters in _A Possible Future!_ Since the story is set in the far future, almost all of the characters are OCs. Here is an alphabetical list, with brief descriptions of important details, of all the dragons mentioned in _A Possible Future,_ to examine if the need arises. Spoiler-free for this fanfic, not so for the canon!

Adelie — IceWing, student at Jade Mountain Academy

Akoya — SeaWing, student at Jade Mountain Academy

Alligator — MudWing, student at Jade Mountain Academy

Arid — SandWing, one of Queen Jackal's assassins

Avocet — SkyWing, student at Jade Mountain Academy

Beluga — SeaWing, Twirl's mother

Cactus — SandWing, Sandstorm's father

Camel — SandWing, student at Jade Mountain Academy

Caracal — SandWing, one of Queen Jackal's assassins

Cassowary "Cass" — SkyWing, one of Queen Russet's soldiers, Petrel's older sister

Coati — SandWing, student at Jade Mountain Academy

Coralline "Cora" — SeaWing, Twirl's younger sister

Current (deceased) — SeaWing, Twirl's sister &amp; nestmate, died of starvation

Damselfly — MudWing, student at Jade Mountain Academy

Dauntless — NightWing, student at Jade Mountain Academy

Duck — MudWing, student at Jade Mountain Academy

Emu — SandWing, one of Queen Jackal's guards

Frostbite — IceWing, student at Jade Mountain Academy, Quartz Winglet

Glass — SandWing, one of Queen Jackal's assassins

Goldeneye — SkyWing, student at Jade Mountain Academy

Gossamer — SeaWing, student at Jade Mountain Academy

Guava — RainWing, student at Jade Mountain Academy

Gull — SeaWing, Twirl's father

Hail — IceWing, Iceberg's father, animus

Iceberg — IceWing/NightWing hybrid, dragonet of destiny, extra-sharp wings

Ivory — SandWing, one of Queen Jackal's assassins

Keshi — SeaWing, Twirl's younger brother

Kowari — SandWing, student at Jade Mountain Academy

Krill — SeaWing, student at Jade Mountain Academy, Quartz Winglet

Lamprey — SeaWing, Twirl's younger brother

Longtail — NightWing, student at Jade Mountain Academy

Mango — RainWing, student at Jade Mountain Academy, Quartz Winglet

Moonwatcher* (deceased) — NightWing, Solstice &amp; Stargazer's mother, former dragonet of destiny, mindreader/prophetess

Morrowseer* (deceased) — NightWing, died in _The Dark Secret_

Muskeg — MudWing, student at Jade Mountain Academy

Nereid — SeaWing, Twirl's younger sister

Petrel — SkyWing, dragonet of destiny, ice powers/resilience to frostbreath

Pinniped "Pinn" — SeaWing, Twirl's younger sister

Plunge — SeaWing, Tsunami &amp; Riptide's son, leader of the Talons of Peace

Princess Blister* (deceased) — SandWing, died in _The Brightest Night_

Princess Burn* (deceased) — SandWing, died in _The Brightest Night_

Princess Destiny — NightWing, possible challenger to Queen Invincible

Princess Orca* (deceased) — SeaWing, died before _The Dragonet Prophecy_

Princess Sunny* — SandWing/NightWing hybrid, former dragonet of destiny, the last living dragon out of the original five

Pyrope — SkyWing, student at Jade Mountain Academy

Python — SandWing, student at Jade Mountain Academy

Queen Auburn — MudWing, queen of the MudWings

Queen Auklet* (deceased) — SeaWing, former queen of the SeaWings

Queen Diamond** — IceWing, queen of the IceWings

Queen Dory — SeaWing, queen of the SeaWings

Queen Invincible — NightWing, queen of the NightWings

Queen Jackal — SandWing, queen of the SandWings

Queen Majestic — RainWing, queen of the RainWings

Queen Russet — SkyWing, queen of the SkyWings

Queen Scarlet* (deceased) — SkyWing, former queen, died in _Escaping Peril_

Sandstorm — SandWing, one of Queen Jackal's assassins, student at Jade Mountain Academy (Quartz Winglet), dragonet of destiny, can see/speak to the dead

Sandy — SandWing, Sandstorm's mother

Secretseer — NightWing, student at Jade Mountain Academy, Quartz Winglet

Shard — IceWing, student at Jade Mountain Academy

Shasa — SeaWing, Talons of Peace second-in-command

Skua — IceWing, student at Jade Mountain Academy

Smoky — SkyWing, student at Jade Mountain Academy

Solstice — IceWing/NightWing hybrid, Moon &amp; Winter's daughter, Iceberg's mother

Spider — RainWing, student at Jade Mountain Academy

Stargazer — NightWing, Moon's son

Storm — IceWing, student at Jade Mountain Academy

Sunshine — RainWing, student at Jade Mountain Academy

Tide — SeaWing, student at Jade Mountain Academy

Toad — MudWing, student at Jade Mountain Academy

Tree Frog — RainWing, student at Jade Mountain Academy

Truthspeaker — NightWing, student at Jade Mountain Academy

Twirl — SeaWing, dragonet of destiny, animus

Vermeil — SkyWing, student at Jade Mountain Academy

Whale — SeaWing, advisor to Queen Auklet

Windwalker — NightWing, student at Jade Mountain Academy

Yellowlegs — SeaWing, student at Jade Mountain Academy

* * *

*Not OCs.

**The sixth Queen Diamond, mind you. Just to make things clear.

(Just a side note: I _do_ reuse names. Sandstorm, Arid, and Mango (and possibly Muskeg?) have all been used in the books. My reason for not coming up with new names? There just aren't enough to go around. And General Sandstorm dies like fifty pages into TBN, Arid is only ever mentioned in the Guide, and Mango speaks — what, two times in the whole series? So I'm only taking the names of unimportant characters. Erin Hunter does it all the time.)


	3. The Last Prophecy

**THE LAST PROPHECY**

_A broken world and they are the breakers._

_A scorched world of ash and they are the makers._

_Sand splits into three again;_

_night is forced to flee again;_

_sky is stained with blood again;_

_ice is cracked with love again;_

_the waves of sea are the earth-shaker._

_A broken world and they are the breakers._

_They wait within their fragile walls._

_They take to the skies as the mountain falls._

_The heavens are burned by a last skyfire._

_The world is splintered by a final desire._

_The last dragonets are coming soon,_

_to our rescue or our doom._

_Their choice to do what must be done,_

_to win this war for everyone._

_Now is a time to live in fear,_

_for the end of the moons draws near._


	4. Prologue

**PROLOGUE**

For seventy million years, dragons have lived on this good green earth. Only for five thousand of these years have we ruled it. Seventy million years is a mere blip in cosmic time. Five thousand is less than the time it takes for the sound of a buzzing gnat to travel from its wings to a dragon's ear. In five thousand years we have accomplished nothing but erect temporary edifices with the false assumption of permanence. The palaces that we have built will be torn down, the hillsides that we have burned will grow green again, the wars that we have fought will be forgotten, on an insignificant planet at the edge of a universe the nature of which we will never fathom, all in a blink of the eye of God. But every once in a very long while, so long that a hundred cycles of creation and destruction pass between each happening, a dragon does something that actually makes a difference. It is something so large that cannot be reversed, cannot be changed, cannot be torn down. It is something that the inconsequential work of five thousand years all leads up to. It is a Last Prophecy, for those who have the means to see it.

* * *

The dragons clustered around Moonwatcher's deathbed, identical masks of sympathy etched on their faces. Only the dragons' eyes betrayed their true intentions — and, of course, their minds.

Moon groaned, and closed off her own mind to her mourners' thoughts. She had treasure enough, and had already made sure none of these faithless friends would ever see hide nor hair of it. Fierceheart would see to it after Moon was gone, like she always did.

On second thought, she opened her thoughts to the dragons around her bed again. Through the murky haze of near-death, Moon sensed an _absence_. Someone was missing, someone who should have been there, who Moon _needed_ with her to say a final goodbye.

She landed on the name. "Solstice." She opened her eyes and trained a penetrating gaze on her son, Stargazer, the only dragon in the room whose tears were not those of a crocodile. "Star, where is Solstice?"

Stargazer shook his head. "I tried to reach her, but she's vanished. Queen Diamond said she disappeared from the Ice Kingdom, ran off with the IceWings' only animus, some dragon named Hail." He hesitated. "They have an dragonet, Mother. A boy."

"So it happens again. History —" Moon broke into a coughing fit. When it subsided, she felt ten times weaker than she had two minutes ago. The end was near. She would not live to see the morning.

"History repeats itself," she rasped. "Now our daughter goes down the path of Foeslayer. Their dragonet will forever seek what he cannot attain."

"You're speaking in riddles, Mother," said Moon's poor, confused, ungifted son.

"I just wish —" continued Moon, before coughing again — "I wish Winter could be here. I wish he could see our daughter. I wish Solstice could see _him._ She deserves to know her father. I never knew mine."

Stargazer shifted uncomfortably. He didn't know what to say. How could he, when his mother's final thoughts were of a dragon who was not his own father?

"Their dragonet," she said, so quiet it was almost a whisper, "what is his name?"

"Iceberg," replied Stargazer.

At the word, Moon cried out as a searing pain tore across her temples. It felt like her skull was splitting in two. Images filled her mind: sun, snow, sea, and sky. Teardrops at the edge of silver eyes. Three glowing blue jewels, each in the talon of a different dragon — orange, gold, and black. _Of three queens who blister and blaze and burn, they'll all die unless they learn, sometimes war cannot be won, nothing will be left once it's done . . ._

Moon's eyes rolled back in her head and a moan was expelled from her jaws.

"What's happening?" asked Stargazer, recoiling in shock. "What did I do?"

"She's having a vision!" Fierceheart, Moon's attendant, said. "Everyone stand back!"

A voice that had not spoken for nearly a hundred years came forth, from an unmappable region of not Moon's throat, but her soul. The voice of a prophecy.

_"A broken world and they are the breakers._

_A scorched world of ash and they are the makers._

_Sand splits into three again;_

_night is forced to flee again;_

_sky is stained with blood again;_

_ice is cracked with love again;_

_the waves of sea are the earth-shaker._

_A broken world and they are the breakers._

_They wait within their fragile walls._

_They take to the skies as the mountain falls._

_The heavens are burned by a last skyfire._

_The world is splintered by a final desire._

_The last dragonets are coming soon,_

_to our rescue or our doom._

_Their choice to do what must be done,_

_to win this war for everyone._

_Now is a time to live in fear,_

_for the end of the moons draws near."_

The prophet twitched, then was still. Moonwatcher was dead.

* * *

A/N: Haha you can probably see I am 100% Winterwatcher TRASH (yet I ship Winbli just as much, I wonder how that happened).

Also, yes, I paid homage to _The Lunar Chronicles_ because of all the names that series shares with _Wings of Fire_ (Scarlet, Winter, Thorn/e) by making Iceberg's parents named Solstice and Hail (*facepalming myself for punning in my story*).

And one last thing: the quote "of three queens who blister and blaze and burn / they'll all die unless they learn / sometimes war cannot be won / nothing will be left once it's done" is from a poem of Ivypool2005! It's in her fanfic _Poem Mix,_ the last poem in Ch3 entitled "Warfire". And it's sooooooo good! Everyone go favorite her! Please ! ! !


	5. Part I

**PART I**

**SAND SPLITS INTO THREE**

Legends rarely begin at a fixed point. Time is not a line, where one event leads to another which leads to another, down all the way to the source. Time is much more complicated than that. It is a labyrinth of loops and circles, overlapping and winding in and out of each other endlessly. It's rather like writing a book — you think you know the way, you've plotted it all out, you have the Fate of your world literally in your hands. You know where it will begin and how it will end. But then the story takes on a life of its own. It goes down its own path, deviating from the carefully crafted one you set down for it. And no matter what you say, what you do, however you plead, once the ball is set rolling, it will not stop. And it winds in a crooked line back to the starting line, the place where it begun, and goes further. Until the entire story is a dragon's carving in turned-up earth, so chaotic that you can no longer see where it begins or even how it ends.

* * *

A/N: It feels a little weird to be putting A/N's in a spacer, but there was a guest who asked if I take OCs and sadly I do not. Sorry!


	6. One

**One**

_I am completely loyal to Queen Jackal._

_I am nothing more than a killer._

_I have one job to do._

Ever so subtly, the SandWing wrapped her tail around her left hind leg, and tucked the deadly barb in the crook between her ankle and claw. It was a trick she had used hundreds of times — and she had pierced herself so many times, an inch-thick layer of callus had formed on top of her scales. All the better for her; she could burrow her tail barb deep into the scar tissue. What she had found out from eleven years of living was that if a dragon couldn't see her poison, they believed it didn't exist.

The steel-like surface of Jade Mountain scraped uncomfortably on the SandWing's claws. After a moment of thought, she rubbed her right foot against her scarred foreleg, an annoyed grimace pulling at her snout. No proper SandWing would feel at all comfortable on this wasteland of a rock.

"Horrible, isn't it?" A leggy RainWing shuffled over to the SandWing's side, his scales shifting from cloudy gray to emerald green, streaked with black. "Give me moss over this mountain any day, jade or not."

The SandWing nodded, and twisted her face into a smirk. A friendly smirk, she hoped. "Yeah. I'd give anything to be back in the Sand Kingdom — just back on the _ground,_" she said, looking over the peak with a shudder. "If I stay out here much longer, my wings are going to freeze off."

The RainWing shifted his scales back to his default gray, then a sunny gold that reminded the SandWing of —

_I am completely loyal to Queen Jackal._

"I'm Spider, Silver Winglet. What's your name?"

The SandWing made sure others were watching before she replied. She was not prejudiced like her queen. She was tolerant and personable. "Sandstorm," said she, digging her tail deeper into her ankle until she was gouging out the callus.

_I am nothing more than a killer._

"Are you Quartz Winglet's SandWing?"

"Yes." A pause. "How did you know?" A quick smile, because she was just friendly that way.

"I've met Kowari and Camel already, and I know Python's in my winglet. So you're either Jade or Quartz, and I guessed from there."

"Oh. Good guess."

Spider frowned, and he turned gray again. "You don't talk much, do you?"

_I have one job to do._

"I talk when I need to, RainWing. And your shallow mind and burnt-out scales are not worth my speech."

Sandstorm smiled, nodded like they had just finished a pleasant conversation, and stalked away. Blood trickled down her left foot and left a crimson rift across the stone of Jade Mountain.

Once she was a safe distance away, she took a quick glance over her shoulder. Spider had his back to her, and was talking with some RainWing covered in an idiotic shade of pink. As Sandstorm watched, Spider's scales shifted color to the exact shade of her own, and a red stain began to spread from the crook between his ankle and claw.

Obviously a tactic meant to scare her. He had seen the secret in her, and wanted to frighten her into letting it slip. Clever, Sandstorm couldn't help thinking, for a RainWing. Perhaps that brainless tribe was more perceptive than she had been taught.

Sandstorm blinked hard twice. What was she _thinking?_

_I am completely loyal to Queen Jackal._

The thin air was addling her wits, Sandstorm was sure of it. RainWings were ignorant, daft, vapid, and overall fools. It was not simply what the queen had taught her; it was a fact, true as the certainty that she was standing on solid ground.

And speaking of Queen Jackal, the queen would be furious when she learnt that Sandstorm had lost her temper today out of all days. For a moment, Sandstorm thought about not mentioning it at all, but the thought blew away like a lizard in a desert storm. Treasonous thinking was, well, treason.

_I am nothing more than a killer._

"Don't know where you're supposed to go?" Sandstorm jumped at the dry voice beside her. How hadn't she noticed this dragon come?

She gave a self-deprecating laugh. "Not really. I was too nervous to ask anyone. I bet you had to help a lot of dragonets, too proud to admit we don't know what in the three moons we're doing."

"Too many." The dry voice belonged to a sour-faced NightWing. At least _she_ fit the description of what her tribe was supposed to be like. "Name and winglet?"

"Sandstorm, Quartz Winglet."

The NightWing pursed her snout and peered close to her scroll. "Cave ten. Go through the entrance and follow the green lights. Your schedule will be in your sleeping cave." She spoke in a monotone, like she had already said these exact words a dozen times.

_Wow, I never would have guessed I have to go in through the _entrance_. You learn something new every day, I suppose._

"Thank you so much," said Sandstorm brightly. "So sorry for taking up your time."

"Don't do it again."

Sandstorm began to leave — she was on a mission but didn't see why she had to spend it with a very obviously unfriendly dragon — when the NightWing spoke again.

"By the way, Cyclone, you'd be surprised how many dragonets don't notice the entrance to the Academy until I point it out."

Sandstorm drew in a sharp breath. Her claws were rooted to the spot as she watched the sour-faced NightWing leave, chuckling slightly. She felt rattled and unbalanced, as if the slightest movement could send her careening off the mountain.

How had that NightWing known what she was thinking? And even more disturbingly, how had she known Sandstorm's nickname was Cyclone?

_Mind-reader,_ a little voice in the back of her head whispered.

_Don't be ridiculous,_ she countered. _She has no teardrop scales._

Sandstorm was getting worked up for no reason. The look on her face must have betrayed her thoughts — she could read faces better than a mind-reader could read minds, why couldn't that NightWing do the same? — and she could have just mixed up the names, sandstorms and cyclones were practically the same thing, after all. It was all just a coincidence. A very freaky coincidence.

_I have one job to do._

Sandstorm pried her claws from the rock — she had no idea she had dug them in so deep — and headed for the entrance, with the unshakable feeling that she was being watched. She risked a quick glance over her shoulder and saw Spider, still in his SandWing mask, staring at her. His eyes carried a look that Sandstorm had seen many times; it was the look she used to give strange dragons when she was trying to figure them out. Since then, Sandstorm had learned to keep her face expressionless.

Face expressionless, Sandstorm entered Jade Mountain Academy.

* * *

"Excuse me?"

Sandstorm had heard the pitter-patter of IceWing claws all the way down the passageway, but had chosen not to care. But now she stopped and sighed. She was tired of putting on a show.

"What do you want?"

The little IceWing's snout dropped open at the sight of Sandstorm's face. "Are you a _student_?"

_I am an assassin,_ whispered Sandstorm's quiet voice.

"Yes, I'm a student," she said. "Who did you think I was?"

"You, um, looked older from the back," said the IceWing dragonet bashfully. She couldn't have been older than six, and had a reticence that suggested her place was in one of the outer circles.

"I'll just, um, go then," she said, and began to scurry away.

"Wait!" _How long does this thrice-cursed pageant have to go on?_ "Are you lost?" asked Sandstorm. "I know the way. I can help."

She indeed did know the way, as she had snuck into Jade Mountain Academy to memorize the school grounds a few weeks before.

"No, really." The dragonet's voice suddenly had a cutting edge to it. "I can find my own way."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course." She brusquely turned and started to walk back the other direction.

_I am completely loyal to Queen Jackal._

"Wait!" Sandstorm shouted again, cursing herself for forgetting to ask. "What's your name?"

"Adelie of Copper Winglet," said the little IceWing without stopping. "You don't need to know the second part. After all, circles don't count here!"

And she disappeared, following, Sandstorm noticed, the exact correct path of lights.

_So that's Adelie._ Sandstorm had looked over the list of students that had come with her acceptance letter, but she hadn't bothered to commit it to memory. Now she saw how that could have come in handy, but the damage was done. She'd learn everybody's names the old-fashioned way — actually meeting them first.

The dragons she had met that day were all very strange, Sandstorm thought as she continued along the stone path, lit by the green-glass lanterns lining the walls. Ingenious, but Sandstorm had more worrying things to concentrate on. Spider and that NightWing teacher had seen through her like she was water. And Adelie seemed just a little . . . off. Why would a six-year-old lie to her?

Then again, talk about strange — Sandstorm, Cyclone, Queen Jackal's Ghost Assassin was walking the dim-lit corridors of Jade Mountain Academy, of all places, smiling and laughing and bleeding from her foot.

_I am nothing but a killer._

But perhaps it wasn't so strange after all. Perhaps they were all undercover assassins — Spider, Adelie, everyone. Perhaps they were all fed up with acting happy and were just getting a little grumpy. Perhaps Sandstorm had annoyed them and was number one on their kill list. But it wouldn't matter, because she could fight. In fact, it wouldn't hurt to brush up a little that night. It wasn't like she was paranoid or anything, just a little training to keep her muscles in shape —

_Wait, what was she thinking?_

_Never give in to fear,_ the queen had said at their very first training session, _for fear will warp your vision and cloud your senses. It is not enough to simply hide your fear. Today, you will learn to destroy it._

Subconsciously, Sandstorm touched a talon to a scar on her snout. It was an old scar, over ten years old, faded as much as her recollection of how she had gotten it. The only thing that distinguished it from her dozens of other scars was that it was her first.

She pushed the memory back and arrived in front of a little side cave with a dangling sign reading "Cave 10". And inside the cave were . . . two dragonets. Sandstorm suppressed a groan. She'd have to play Happy Dragonet a little while longer.

_I have one job to do._

"Hello?" she said tentatively as she nosed her way into the sleeping cave. "Is this the cave for Quartz Winglet?"

The two dragonets, a SkyWing and a NightWing, just stared at her. They were sitting separately — the SkyWing was studying a scroll, and the NightWing was sitting on the floor with a dreamy look on her face, fingering a necklace of jet-black stones.

"Um, hello? You guys are Quartz Winglet, right?" Sandstorm repeated.

"Yes," said the SkyWing, a tiny thing with a whispery, high-pitched voice. "And you must be Sandstorm. Greetings. I am Vermeil, the niece of Queen Russet." Vermeil sounded like she was reciting from a poorly written script.

"Er . . ."

"She's kind of scared of you," said the NightWing, her dreamy eyes now back in the present. "I mean, no offense, but you _are_ kind of scary. You're not what either of us was expecting."

"Well, no offense," said Sandstorm, "but _you're_ kind of scary, too." She gestured to the NightWing dragonet's eyes, which had silver teardrop scales. The mark of a mind-reader.

"What, these?" The NightWing made a _pffft_ sound. "They mean nothing. I was born on the night of a full moon, but my egg rolled out of the moonlight while my mother wasn't watching. I can't read minds or make prophecies. I'm useless."

"She tells the same story, over and over," Vermeil intoned. " 'I'm useless.' Over and over and over."

The NightWing stood up and bowed mockingly. "I am Dragonkiller," she proclaimed. Seeing Sandstorm's alarmed expression, she quickly added, "Just kidding. My name's Secretseer. Mostly wishful thinking on my mother's part, you know, because I'm useless. It's nice to meet you, Sandstorm. Does anyone ever call you Sandy?"

"What? No. Sandy is my mother's name. No one would ever call me that." _Well, Sandy could hardly be called my mother. I haven't seen her in years._

_Secretseer, Vermeil. Adelie, Spider._ Sandstorm vowed to commit every single name to memory. "Have you met the boy dragonets in our winglet yet?"

Secretseer shook her head. "Nah, I came straight to the cave. I don't particularly like boys . . . or other dragonets . . . or socializing," she admitted.

Sandstorm felt her hopes lift. _With antisocial Secretseer and quiet Vermeil, I might not have to be Happy Sandstorm all the time. I could just be . . . me._

* * *

A/N: I probably won't update for at least another couple weeks, because I want to get a few chapters ahead so I can start posting regularly. Once I get really get into this story, I'm hoping to update once a week to week and a half.


	7. Two

**Two**

"_Attack me."_

_The dragonet frowned. _Attack my mother? _What was she saying?_

"_Well? Go on. Attack me."_

"_But _—" _The dragonet struggled to put her young thoughts into words. "But — but I can't beat you."_

"_That is true now," said her mother, "but one day you will be able to. In the meantime, you must learn. You may someday have to fight when you know your opponent has already beaten you."_

_The dragonet still did not move. _What's the point? _She thought._ Why spar with a fully-grown dragon who will flatten me in less than a minute? Surely there's nothing to be learned from that.

"_Another lesson of today," said the queen, her voice hardening, "is that my orders are to be followed promptly and without delay. They are not to be disobeyed. Attack me, Sandstorm." A quiet snarl followed the dragonet's name._

_Seeing she had no other choice, the dragonet leaped at her mother. Queen Jackal flared her wings and roared. Sandstorm, afraid, quickly twisted out of the way and landed hard on her side. She heard the queen's claw-steps advance toward her, and could feel hot breath on her neck. Sandstorm looked up nervouslyly; the queen's eyes burned with rage._

"_Never give in to fear!" she shouted, brandishing her wings. "Fear will warp your mind and cloud your senses. It is not enough to simply hide your fear. You must learn to destroy it!"_

_Sandstorm flinched away from the blow as it came. She felt Queen Jackal's diamond-hard claws slice through her snout, but she didn't cry out in pain._

_In fact, she felt no pain at all._

"_You're not real," whispered Sandstorm in a voice ten years older than her own. "None of this is real."_

_She raised her tail and drove the sharp barb through her own throat._

* * *

Sandstorm sat up in bed, gasping. The scar on her snout stung like it was still new. She rubbed a talon against it, trying to get rid of the lingering pain.

She had had another nightmare; Sandstorm was sure of it. And she couldn't for the life of her remember what it was about.

_I am completely loyal to Queen Jackal._

They all had memories that needed washing away, Sandstorm and her brothers and sister. They weren't biologically related, of course, more like partners in crime, but she had grown up with them, and they felt like nestmates to her.

Ivory and Glass had each other to hold onto. Caracal fought her scars away, and Arid buried them in a deep, unknown chamber in his mind. But Sandstorm . . . Sandstorm didn't quite know what she had done with hers. But whenever she slept in a new place, the nightmares would come back. And she never remembered them in the morning.

Sandstorm couldn't tell if it was morning yet. Under the mountain, everything was dark. It made her feel trapped, having so many tons of rock above her. Not being able to see the sky.

She heard Secretseer stirring across the cave, and her vision adjusted to see the NightWing dragonet staring at Sandstorm.

"Why are you awake?" she asked, seeing Sandstorm had noticed her.

"Nothing," said Sandstorm quickly. "Just . . . just a nightmare. Why are _you_ awake?"

_Or, why are you here talking to me when I need to do my job?_

Secretseer shrugged. "I couldn't sleep. NightWings are used to hunting at night, you know."

"What about her?" Sandstorm asked, gesturing to Vermeil, who was sleeping at the other end of the cave.

"She's out like a firefly in winter. I've tried poking her, shaking her, _and_ head-butting her and she won't wake up. Maybe she will if you stab her with that tail of yours."

_I am nothing but a killer._

Sandstorm recoiled, a second too late. "I'd _never_ use my tail on a dragonet!"

"Really? You were talking in your sleep."

A cold dread came over Sandstorm. "What . . . what was I saying?"

" 'None of this is real.' Over and over."

"I don't remember that at all," said Sandstorm, and it was the truth.

"Hello?"

Perfectly in sync, Sandstorm and Secretseer swiveled their heads toward the cave entrance. A SeaWing dragonet was at the entrance, illuminated by the lantern he was holding. He had bright blue scales, brighter blue eyes, and was a bit on the large side. Sandstorm noticed his royal scale pattern immediately.

"It might interest you to know that this is the _girls'_ sleeping cave," said Secretseer, sounding annoyed. "And _you_, as far as I can tell, are not a girl."

"No, no. I'm — I'm not a girl," said the SeaWing in response. "I'm Krill, from cave nine. I heard you two talking."

_Krill, Quartz Winglet,_ Sandstorm committed to memory.

Krill took their silence as surprise. "Yeah, I know it's ironic. Me, named Krill! Totally. A shrimp." He chuckled.

"Well look at that," said Secretseer, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "We should make an Ironic Names Club and get an award for Dragonet with the Cruelest Mother of the Year! What do you think?"

Krill blinked. "No, I don't think that's a good idea."

"Why are _you_ awake?" Sandstorm asked, to change the subject.

"Couldn't sleep under all this rock." Secretseer frowned, and Krill flinched. "Well, I just wanted to make sure everything was alright."

"Everything is fine," said Sandstorm, as sweetly as she could muster.

"Then I'll — I'll go back to my sleeping cave, then." He ducked out of the cave entrance.

"Yes, please do!" Secretseer shouted at Krill's retreating tail.

"Why are you being so mean to him?"

Secretseer shuddered. "SeaWings rub me the wrong way." She twisted her claw around a necklace. It wasn't the jet necklace Sandstorm had noticed her wearing before, but a thinner, longer one made of black filigree.

"That's intolerant, Secretseer."

"You're right." She sighed. "I suppose I should go say sorry." She got up and left.

_Yes, please do!_ Sandstorm shouted silently at her retreating tail.

Once she was sure Secretseer was gone, Sandstorm reached for her satchel and pulled out a slab of black glass.

_I have one job to do._

"Show me Krill," she muttered. The Obsidian Mirror grew warm and comforting in her talons, and two blue tendrils of smoke snaked from its thin frame. One moved as if it was rearing its head back.

"Are you going to do this or not?" the Mirror hissed. This wasn't Krill's voice. It came from an older dragon.

"I won't," said Krill. He was trying to sound brave, but Sandstorm could hear his voice shaking.

"The only reason I duped your way into this silly school was because of our plan!"

"This wasn't our plan!" Krill's voice rose to a shout, and the adult dragon shushed him.

"This wasn't our plan," repeated Krill, more quietly this time. "It's yours."

"And you will follow along with it, whether you like it or not."

"I won't do it."

The wind whistled through the Obsidian Mirror, and Sandstorm heard the _whap_ of a tail striking scales. A second later, there was a _thump_ as Krill's body hit the floor. The smaller blue tendril whimpered.

Sandstorm rolled her eyes. "Coward," she murmured. She turned her attention back to the Mirror.

"Who's first?" Krill was saying sadly.

"The Princess Vermeil of the SkyWings." Sandstorm stole a glance at the dragonet sleeping on her stone slab. "She's in your winglet, so even someone as annoyingly idiotic as yourself should be able to find her and neutralize her quickly."

"And then?"

"Provided you succeed, I'll handle the negotiations with Queen Russet. A SeaWing guard in the Sky Kingdom will be put in place, and then . . . well, you know the rest." The Mirror picked up the sound of a dagger being drawn from its sheath.

"Three moons," Sandstorm breathed. She had known the Sea and Sky Kingdoms had been on the brink of war for years — and she had personally killed some important dragons to bring the tribes closer to the edge. Even so, she hadn't expected to find anything at Jade Mountain Academy. But this . . . the assassination of a queen and her second heir would definitely spark a war.

"Who's there?" A rusty voice emerged from the Obsidian Mirror. Sandstorm's eyes widened when she saw the third yellow tendril on the Mirror's glass surface, but she knew enough to keep her mouth shut.

"Hello?" the voice called out as the two blue tendrils disappeared. "I know you're there. I heard you. 'Three moons,' you said."

Sandstorm still didn't say a word.

"Oh, come on." The voice sounded like a whiny child now. "Come talk to me. I haven't had someone to talk to for a hundred years."

She changed tactics. "Look, you're a SandWing. I know who your queen is and what she stands for. She wouldn't be pleased if she knew you had the chance to speak with her idol and let it pass."

"What idol?" asked Sandstorm. "Who are you? How can you hear me?"

"One question at a time, little lizard," said the voice. "I'll go first. Who are _you_?"

"My name is Kowari," she lied. "Daughter of Glass. Gold Winglet."

"Oh, a Jade Mountain rat, are you?" The voice hardened until it was sharp as steel. "You're lying. I'll give you one more chance to tell the truth before I turn you away. So I'll ask again: _Who are you?_"

Sandstorm exhaled. Whoever this was, she was _good_. Caracal sometimes called Sandstorm "The Mask" because she was so good at lying. And this dragon had seen through her without even seeing her face.

"I'm Sandstorm," she admitted. "Daughter of . . . Cactus. But I _do_ go to Jade Mountain Academy. I'm in Quartz." Might as well tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

"Intriguing," said the yellow tendril.

"Now it's my turn," said Sandstorm. "What's your name?"

"Oh, I think you know my name already."

Sandstorm had the feeling she did too, but she refused to show it. "That's not an answer."

"I like your spirit." The voice chuckled. "Very well. My name is Queen Burn."

* * *

A/N: I am so sorry I have literally not updated since August. I've been focusing on other, more urgent things (such as getting _another_ sixty-chapter fanfic written and posted in a mere ten months), so I think I'm going to make this my "work on it when I feel like it, update very rarely" fanfic. Sorry, friends. It'll be epic when it's completed, I assure you.


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